2024 Peoplehood Parade & Pageant in photos: A celebration of art and activism

The Peoplehood Parade & Pageant swelled through the streets of West Philadelphia on Saturday with vibrant colors, powerful messages, and community spirit. Led by Spiral Q, a Philadelphia-based arts organization dedicated to championing the power of art to foster community and create social change, the 24th annual Spiral Q Peoplehood Parade & Pageant brought together more than 25 local organizations and countless individuals. 

Artists, neighbors, and youth came together to create larger-than-life puppets that danced, swayed, and celebrated their creators’ stories. These joyous figures, handmade at Spiral Q’s Warehouse Studio in the East Parkside neighborhood of Philadelphia, embodied messages of resilience, triumph, and collective liberation, transforming public space into a place of self-expression where joy and protest merge seamlessly.  

Accompanied this year by pageant music composed by Spiral Q‘s apprentice/intern Noah Slade, and performed by a band of volunteer musicians, the parade begins each year at the Paul Robeson House, a historical landmark and museum that celebrates the life of Paul Robeson — actor, athlete, singer and civil rights activist — and culminates at Clark Park where the pageant takes place. 

Since its inception, the Peoplehood Parade has grown into a vital public art tradition and a public declaration of belonging, visibility, and solidarity. With an emphasis on community partnerships and audience participation, this event brings together Philadelphians from across the city to march and sing and make art together.

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